7 weeks...

Our Christmas Present!!!


Santa must have come!!

Too Cute!!

Wow! Seven weeks was a busy week. Breck has been staying awake a lot more (that is fighting sleep!). He will get so sleepy and almost be fast asleep, when all of a sudden, his eyes pop wide open! Nanny says, "He is definitely his father's child!" This week was Christmas!!! We had lots of fun with Breck being here for his first Christmas! We went to Nana's on Christmas Eve and Aunt Tina and Uncle Wes's for Christmas morning and then Aunt MiMi and Uncle Michael's for dinner. It sure was a busy 2 days. This week I really think I got my first smile! As I went up to talk to him, he gave me a grin from ear to ear! It was the biggest smile I have ever seen. He also has been doing some squealing which is absolutely adorable. His first squeal was at the fan....I don't know what is so exciting about a fan??? Oh yeah, how could I forget, the dr. diagnosed him with acid reflux. So now he is on a medication that hopefully will work!!!!

6 weeks...

Here you are at 6 weeks. You are growing so fast!!! I can't believe you are already 6 weeks old. You have been giving momma a little trouble. It may be completely normal but not for a first time mother. I am a nervous wreck with all the projectile vomiting, not sleeping well at night (all your dinosaur noises make us think you are choking or can't breath), and the occasional irritability. You pretty much still sleep all day long and all night for that matter and wake up for your feedings every 3 hours on the dot most of the time. I love when we wake up in the morning and you are bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to eat. This is your happiest time and I can lay you in your playyard bassinet and you will just lay there for about 30 minutes looking at all your toys. You are starting to smile a little more. We are amazed at how strong you are. You have been lifting your head and turning it from side to side for quite some time now. You did roll from your stomach to your back (you don't like tummy time too much) while laying on the bed the other day but I give a little credit to the bed being so jiggly. You haven't rolled over on the floor yet. That will be the day I say you have rolled over. We are so happy to have you here!!!!

NICU

The craziness begins. Having a child in the NICU for any length of time is extremely exhausting, but something inside you pushes you to keep going. Jason and I visited the NICU every morning and night and sometimes in between for the two whole weeks that Breck was in there. Each time was a new experience, because each time we went there was a new nurse. Most of which I felt comfortable leaving my child with and some I didn't. Every time we went to see him, we had to scrub our hands and arms for 3 minutes and put on this awful gown.....it was awful having to do this each time we wanted to see him. Only grandparents and parents were allowed to vist and only 2 at a time. Finally we got a semi private room and a few others got to be put on the list. Each time I got to see him was my favorite time, but my ultimate favorite time was when I got to kangaroo with my baby. It felt good getting to hold him skin to skin. He was so precious. We knew it was close to coming home when we got our own private room. Then I will never forget the phone call asking me to bring the carseat....I knew it was really close then. The last night, Jason and I had to stay in the hospital with him. Trust me we didn't sleep well at all. Finally, the day we had been waiting for....we got to go home on November 19th.

He's here.....

Baby Breck decided to come 6 weeks early.....So instead of a Christmas baby, we had a Thanksgiving baby. Here's how it all went down. Monday night, November 2nd, at about 11:00 pm I peed my pants when I was sleeping. Then, I just kept peeing my pants and feeling like I had to pee every 5 minutes. I called my mom and told her something wasn't right. I didn't know if my water had broke or if I had a urinary tract infection or what. I wasn't having any contractions at all and earlier that day, I had a dr. appointment. They said everything looked great. She had even checked me and told me that I hadn't dialated or anything. So I didn't know what was going on. Mom told me to try to get some rest and call the dr. in the morning. So I tried but ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep total with all the peeing I was doing. I got up the next morning and got ready for work, still no contractions. So, I went to work, called the dr. and they told me I had better go ahead and come in to make sure it wasn't my water that had broken. Now, it is 9 a.m. and I am frantically leaving school heading for the hospital. When I got there, the dr. checked me and said, "Ok, this is what is going to happen....you're going to go down stairs and have a baby." Of course, knowing that 6 weeks early wasn't a good thing, I begin to cry. She comforts me and says that babies born at 34 weeks will have to stay in the NICU for a while, but usually are just fine. So I immediately call Jason and my mom to let them know they better get their butts to the hospital because a baby would be on its way pretty soon. So not only did I drive myself to the hospital to give birth, I am now checking into the hospital alone waiting on Jason to arrive.....which let me add didn't take him long. He said he drove 90 on the bypass. By the way still no contractions really. Still wasn't sinking in. Finally I get moved to a room. By 2:00 p.m. the contractions start to intensify, still not too bad, but I thought I better go ahead and put in for an epidural, knowing they may take a while to get there. I was only at a 4. So by 5 the anesthesiologist finally arrived (I was hurting by then, but making it). I was still at a 4 I think. But 2 hours later when the nurse came to check me, I was at a 10 and she was like, "Oh my!".....I frantically said, "WHAT?"....She said, "We're ready to have a baby!" That's when I got pretty nervous, not knowing how to push and all.....our class was supposed to be 2 weeks later, which obviously didn't happen. Anyways, it happened as smooth as butter. We had a beautiful baby boy named BRECK HARPER MCFADDEN. They let me see him and kiss him for a slit second before they rushed him off to the NICU where they could assess him better. Later that night I got to go see him laying in his little incubator with all his cords. It was so sad to see, but I just had to beleive he would be okay....

Cutting the Cake

The Reveal Party

Finally, we had the reveal party on July 26, 2009. I don't think any of us could keep a secret any more. We had family and friends join us as we announced that we are having a BOY!!! We had my Nana and Papa cutting the cake. Everyone anxiously waited as they saw a pink or blue line in the middle of the cake. To some of their surprise, it was a blue line! We had a great time and really appreciated everyone that joined us during this exciting time in our lives.

The Ultrasound - Week 19

We had our 19th week ultrasound on July 22, 2009. I was very nervous today. I really don't know why. But everytime I have to go to the doctor, I am afraid they are going to say something is wrong. They said everything looked great. The baby was 10 oz and very cute! (even though it looked like an alien). Yes, I am still calling it an IT, because we are having a party this Sunday to reveal to family and friends if we are having a boy or girl. I think we have done a pretty good job; however, we have almost let it slip several times. The funniest story is one that my mom told me. She called and told me that my brother thinks he knows what it is because he said I gave it away. So I asked her how did I do that? She said because you can't find anyone to color the cake the way you want it. He said if it was a girl, I know bakeries can make a strawberry cake. Well, none of the bakeries will color a cake whether it is pink, blue, purple, or yellow. They strictly make white, chocolate, or carrot cake. Unless of course you find some person that makes cakes on the side, which I tried to do. But they were all booked up. So Dustin, it looks like you were trying to be very clever, but you didn't outsmart me yet. This cake thing has been a pain! That's what I get for wanting to have a reveal party.

How it all began....

We have been trying to have a baby for 2 years. Finally after some minor surgery, we got pregnant on our own in 2 months. We were so excited. We found out around Easter, but we just couldn't wait until Easter to tell our parents. (Jason cannot keep a secret for anything!!) So I told my mom she was getting an early Easter present because she had to actually use it before Easter. She fell for it. When she got to our house, we had her open up plastic Easter eggs from her Easter basket. She finally got to the one that said, "Congratulations Grandma!" She started bawling immediately. Next it was on to tell his parents. They are pretty hard to trick, but they are used to me showing them cute little pictures that I take of Cabella all dressed up. So I told them they had to see this one. Well, it was not a picture of Cabella. It was a picture of the pregnancy test. They too were extremely excited!!